If you hate Fords, this is your nightmare!

The '70/'71 school year began September 8, 1970. By the first day of autumn I noticed quite a few 1971 Fords cruising along the highway near the school bus pickup zone.

In an interview for Motor Trend magazine earlier that summer, a Ford designer was very proud of the extra long front-ends added to the new Fords for 1971 - give GM and Chrysler a case of "hood envy", lol.

While I personally thought the new Fords were goodlooking cars, I was beginning to wonder what was happening on the streets. New cars go on sale every year, but I'd never seen so many from one make, in so short a time.

By the third week of October, 1970, many of the other kids waiting at the school bus zone began to comment on all the Fords too. One day the unbelievable happened. At the nearby intersection, every car on the main street, as well as the cross street, was a '71 Ford!

One of my friends commented, "this can't be real, it's kinda freaky".

By Halloween 1970, it was truly unreal. Even people who normaly take no notice of cars began talking about the Ford Invasion. All the neighborhood trick 'r treaters exercised extra caution that year, who wants to get hit by a creepy '71 Ford - on Halloween?

Btw, speaking of creepy, it didn't help having Rod "Mr. Twilight Zone" Serling as spokeman for the new Ford LTD that year!

It was March, 1971, when the Virginian Pilot ran a huge article congratulating Bruce Flournoy Ford, in Norfolk, Virginia, for breaking all eastern seaboard automobile dealership sales records for model year 1971 - sending Chevrolet dearlers into a panic!

Every year, the first day of Autumn brings back this old memory. This year I decided to share my story with all you guys here on Retro-Daze. It's one of those occurances that if you weren't there you would never know such a thing would be possible.

And yes, Ford Motor Company was very proud of the 1971 Fords.

Ahhh, the old Land Yachts of yore. I love this era of cars. Grand Tour recently did an episode where they all took a road trip across Scotland in a Riviera, Cadillac Coupe Deville and a stunning Lincoln Continental Mark V. Growing up we had an Oldmosobile Cutlass, it was a 2 door with a vinyl roof and a mosntrous V8. We bought it used from someone who lived by the ocean and it has a lot of rust but low mileage. 

Gotta tell ya, V-man, the final four months of 1970 still stand out as very unusual to me, no matter how much time passes. In an odd way, I'm very proud to be a witness to the last of the American land yachts, among other goings on that fall.

In school, my teachers were excited for us kids as the generation that was headed to the 21st century colonizing of the Moon and Mars, while the 60's hippies were excited for us kids as the generation that was going to end pollution and restore the planet to Eden health in the new century.

All I can say for myself is that I lost my way in the amazing Carnival of Life that we call the 80's, and the 90's. Never will I regret being part of the most amazing two decades to ever closeout a century!

And it was all touched-off by the monstermobiles of the 1970's.

Btw, the 1971 cars from GM and Chrysler did their best too!